1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display device using a plasma display panel (referred to as PDP, below). More particularly, it relates to a plasma display device having a new structure for supporting a PDP and for connecting a PDP with various driving circuits.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
Recently, plasma display devices have greatly attracted the attention of many people as a display device for a wall-mounted television. Although there are two kinds of PDP based on a difference in the driving methods, such as an AC type and a DC type, an AC type color plasma display device will be explained hereinafter only by way of example.
The AC type of plasma display device is comprised of a PDP and a main frame for supporting and holding circuit boards thereon. Various circuit components including circuits for driving the PDP are held on the circuit boards. Since the PDP is mainly comprised of two glass plates arranged in parallel with each other so as to hold a plasma forming gas therebetween, the main frame having circuit boards thereon and the PDP are fastened together using a binding material. In this case, however, when a defect is found in the PDP once it has been fastened to the main frame to form a plasma display device, the PDP and the main frame must be replaced together with new ones because the main frame cannot be separated easily from the PDP. Accordingly, the main frame should be designed by taking in account the possibility that it will be discarded. For this reason, the conventional main frame has been made in a simple form to reduce the manufacturing cost.
However, the main frame has other functions, such as to quickly and uniformly absorb the heat generated by the PDP so that the entire PDP surface is maintained at a uniform temperature, thus keeping the display quality of the PDP high, and to quickly move the absorbed heat to the outside of the device through heat conduction and radiation. In order to accomplish these functions, the main frame should be made from a material having a large thermal conductivity and should have a large surface area. However, since the possibility of discarding the main frame along with the PDP should be taken in account, as mentioned above, the main frame cannot have a complicated and high cost structure to increase the thermal conductivity and the surface area. Accordingly, the conventional main frame has been made of a relatively thin metal plate.
On the other hand, the main frame should have a high mechanical strength to protect the PDP from external stress since it is made of glass plates. As the panel size of the PDP increases, the metal plate must be made thicker to ensure the mechanical strength of the main frame and the PDP. In this case, however, a problem arises in keeping the panel flat. This is because the panel is easily broken due to stress arising from an uneven panel.
As mentioned above, the conventional plasma display device has various problems arising from coupling the PDP to the main frame.